MSpot – a new competitor to Spotify, maybe

MSpot – the service allows people to upload their music — be it purchased, ripped or downloaded for free — and access it from any Mac, Windows or Google Android device. MSpot’s model avoids the stumbling blocks of licensing deals which have repeatedly delayed the release of a U.S. version of Spotify

Today, how people sync music is they’re manually connecting that USB cable, they have to transfer all their files, and any time your library changes, you’ve got to sync up,” Tsui told Wired.com. “With the music now in the cloud, we believe you don’t have to do that anymore. Any changes happen in the background, and you see that on your mobile device.

Rather than trying to recognize the music files on your computer and replicate it in the cloud, which would likely invite licensing issues with the labels, MSpot literally uploads your music collection from iTunes, Windows Media Player, and/or any folders you specify — maintaining any ratings and metadata you may have set up in iTunes by scanning its XML database. The upload process takes at least several hours depending on processing power and connection speed, but once it’s there, you’re good to go.

MSpot’s Google Android app can play music while you’re doing other stuff, and can pause/resume for calls.

The web and mobile apps display lyrics and other information for songs in your library that MSpot recognizes.

On the desktop, MSpot resembles iTunes, Spotify and other music playback software.